In the field effect transistor field, a known electronic control module prior art comprises a field effect transistor and a control circuit for controlling the field effect transistor by varying the gate potential of the transistor with relation to the potential of its source. The control circuit is powered with a negative voltage since a field effect transistor is controlled in negative voltage.
When the field effect transistor is in the on state, there is a risk of short circuit, which may lead to its destruction.
Methods exist that allow a short circuit to be detected, especially by comparing the drain to source voltage, known as the saturation voltage, of the transistor with a reference voltage, said drain to source voltage being positive.
When the drain to source voltage is greater than this reference voltage, it is deduced therefrom that the field effect transistor is in an overcurrent or short circuit state.
A negative potential is thus necessary to control the field effect because of the negative voltage control and a positive potential is also necessary for comparison with the positive saturation voltage.
One drawback of this prior art is that one must thus have an additional electrically insulated power supply for detecting the short circuit, which leads to additional power supply regulation problems. This adds an additional component, the additional power supply, to the control module in the case where short circuit detection is performed outside the control circuit, and otherwise, this complicates the design of the control circuit itself for incorporate the additional power supply in the case where short circuit detection is performed inside the control circuit.